Friday, October 12, 2012

Apologies for the late submission, there were difficulties with exporting the video!!

Photo Essay
Rationale

By Nathan
Sweeney (42457254) & Jannat Dawra (42457300)

The
concept/intent of our Photo Essay is the overlooked and somewhat unappreciated
environmental elements of the everyday aesthetic.

The
decision to stick to a colour scheme (red) was decided after aiming to maintain
a constant theme – sustaining the same colour through a range of objects and
natural elements seemed a noteworthy one. Due to its dominant and energetic
presence; Sydney’s city, China town and Darling Harbour were decided as the
location for the shoot. We aimed to highlight the paradox of the colour’s primary
and dominant nature; red stop signs, architecture of significance and natural
environments seemed to be ignored in order to make room for expressions for and
against economic desire depicted through powerful vehicles and-graffiti stained
business buildings.

The colour
also has cultural significance, stemming from the Chinese culture, which
perceives red as a colour of luck and goodwill – decorating its landmarks,
symbols and other cultural acts consistently with this colour.

Although bright
and colourful, the landmarks and elements of nature become a motif for the true
everyday aesthetic which is constantly overlooked and unappreciated in a
economically-driven and arguably rushed world.

We
chose to focus on these elements in order to uncover their true
significance in everyday aesthetics.

The decision to stick to a colour scheme (red) was decided after aiming to maintain a constant theme – sustaining the same colour through a range of objects and natural elements seemed a noteworthy one. Due to its dominant and energetic presence; Sydney’s city, China town and Darling Harbour were decided as the location for the shoot. We aimed to highlight the paradox of the colour’s primary and dominant nature; red stop signs, architecture of significance and natural environments seemed to be ignored in order to make room for expressions for and against economic desire depicted through powerful vehicles and-graffiti stained business buildings.

The colour also has cultural significance, stemming from the Chinese culture, which perceives red as a colour of luck and goodwill – decorating its landmarks, symbols and other cultural acts consistently with this colour. Although bright and colourful, the landmarks and elements of nature become a motif for the true everyday aesthetic which is constantly overlooked and unappreciated in a economically-driven and arguably rushed world.

Shadows; the Everyday Aesthetic.

Beau QuickSID 42841402

We live in a world of light and dark where shadows occupy the remaining spaces creating fleeting moments often only capture through digital images. Over time photographers have been drawn to this evocative world where shadows play with notions of time and place. Photographer Ron Bigelow has suggested that "light is nothing without shadows." When used creatively, shadows not only give a sense of depth and form but also provide an additional point of interest to complement the main subject of the composition (Mahmood n.d.) In this photo-essay, I have tried to capture the everyday aesthetics of shadows in my local environment whilst accompanying these images with original music in an attempt to emphasise their subtleties and other worldliness.

Reference:

Bigelow, R. The Importance of Shadows. Retrieved from http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/shadows/importance_of_shadows.htm on 11/10/12

Mahmood, H. The Importance of Shadows. Retrieved from htto://acg2.fullcoll.edu/FACULTY/MAHMOOD/ACG170/shadows.html on 11/10/12

For many people, street signs reflect a
certain degree of sameness and so are regularly dismissed and overlooked by
passers-by as mere indicators of place.
Our photo-essay, however, seeks to effectively challenge these commonly
held perceptions and thus has sought to present these commonplace and largely
uninspiring objects in a new and interesting light. In doing so, we decided to focus primarily on
the various ways in which street signs can be captured in terms of light,
texture, decay as well as highlight their unique placement in different
locations. Moreover, we attempted to
inject these inanimate objects with an element of life by photographing them
from various angles and perspectives.

As our photographs were largely captured in
the inner city area and eastern suburbs of Sydney, they subtly reflect the
changes in various socio-economic and cultural areas. Therefore, whilst some of
the photographs depict a certain degree of rawness and imperfection others are
evidently more polished and have been preserved by local councils. As well as
providing us with these textual contrasts, travelling to different city suburbs
enabled us to document how street signs are presented in an array of colours
and forms.

All in all, our photo essay titled ‘Urban
Connections - StreetSCAPE’ aimed to transform and thus elevate the somewhat mundane and
lifeless character of street signs so that they had the capacity to capture and
challenge the reader’s imagination – and in essence, illustrate that there is
indeed, beauty in the bleak.

The images encapsulated within the video ‘Líneas’ were
specifically composed to reflect the Everyday Image (Murray, 2008) through the
unique theme of texture and a line sub theme. The textures that compose the
urban environment are a mundane and overwhelmingly overlooked component of
everyday life despite the frequency with which they are encountered. As such
the images immediately draw the eye creating a path to follow and indicating
the unseen details and unique patterns of everyday life that remain undetected.

The close up nature of the images used in ‘Líneas’ uncovers
the true, and unnoticed, beauty of Everyday objects. As such it reflects the
growing photographical trend of the Everyday Aesthetic, as described by Murray,
in which photos are artistically composed to create unique images that
demonstrate beauty in the ordinary and also hint at the every day life of
composers.

The power of ‘Líneas’ is that the textures and lines
captured hint at components of the everyday life that are simultaneously
familiar and unfamiliar due to the frequency with which they are overlooked. Fences,
object and other surfaces that are used everyday are suddenly transformed, detailed
and surprisingly beautiful thereby capturing the splendour and influence of the
Everyday Aesthetic.

I chose to take pictures of doors and doorknobs because we use them more than everything else everyday. I specifically wanted to highlight the character of both old and new doors. Everybody uses doors and doorknobs and often we don't pay attention to what they look like or what the history is behind them.The idea behind everyday aesthetic as Murray explain;s is to make the mundane or everyday extaordinary, "it priviledges.. the mundane". With the subtheme of old and new I chose a song that features an intrument that can be regarded as both old and new; a violin piece from creative commons. The photos were taken over a month and the best were used. I imported the photos into "iPhoto" then edited them using different effects to simulate almost a polaroid feel to them, I then used "iMovie" to put them together and added music, then
exported and uploaded the video to YouTube from iMovie.

'Glass'

Michelle Cefai (42797837) & Lisa Formby (42884489)

The everyday image according to Murray are types of images
“that we can create or engage with on a regular basis that evoke or reference
the more ordinary or frequent moments of our lives” (Murray 2008, p.151). For
the purpose of this visual essay the ‘everyday object’ documented is glass; typically
an object looked through it is being looked at. This as an everyday object is
being challenged aesthetically both through photographic conventions and through
the compilation of the images.

The increasing interest in the subject of the aesthetic
of the everyday as discussed by Murray in her article challenges photographic
conventions. The subject of a photo according to Murray “can be mundane or typically
domestic” (Murray 2008, p.159). Murray suggests a new aesthetic and function
within photography “one dedicated to the exploration of the urban eye and its
relation to decay, alienation and kitsch, and its ability to locate beauty in
the mundane” (Murray 2008, p.155). Photographing glass a typically overlooked
object highlights its practicality, a material used in countless everyday
objects, when damaged its usefulness is made clear. The photos are snapshots of
some objects of glass and then looking at glass as a whole subject matter,
reflecting the beauty in the ordinary or mundane nature of the everyday.

The compilation of the images again challenge photography
in what Murray regards as photos needing to capture moments, in doing so a
narrative is created. Murray recognises that there is now an “accepted
temporariness” (Murray 2008, p.156) to the everyday image. This notion
compliments the visual essay that there is no particular narrative to the
series of photos, that through sound and vision a comment is made on the
aesthetic of the everyday its temporary presence and beauty being “valued by
the community” (Murray 2008, p.159).

It is the intention of this photo essay that streetlights be
represented as a silent army, standing tall and waiting patiently to resist the
onslaught of darkness. Framing images such that streetlights stand against an
intimidating backdrop of darkening sky, and also the use of computer editing
and appropriate music, allowed the generally unremarkable objects to be endowed
with epic qualities.

The presentation of the photos in this essay, and their
subject matter, are in line with the ‘shift in the engagement with the everyday
image’; a shift that, according to Murray (2008) has given birth to a new type
of photography that she dubs ‘ephemera’ (p.147, 155). This photo essay should
be recognised as falling into this new category as it attempts to ‘locate
beauty in the mundane’ through the artistic presentation of the usually
unremarkable objects (Murray, 2008, p.155). Furthermore, it should be
acknowledged that the insignificance of the objects would normally have been
emphasised by the time of day at which the photos were taken, i.e. while it was
still light out, but the use of computer editing and music reversed this, giving
the lights more life than they perhaps would in the dark, further aligning the
essay with the thoughts of Murray.

In regards to our project, my
partner and I chose to explore shadows. This is because we found it to be an
interesting subject because of the way shadows change depending on the time of
day and the type of lighting available. Shadows can be manipulated by natural
factors such as the weather and water and thus, we thought it would be good to use
it as our topic. Although it seemed like a relatively easy task, we had some
problems when it came to finding a variety of different types of shadows.
Originally we had a lot of photos of trees and plants, but we then decided to take some photos around our homes and local areas. We also had to take the photos with our
Iphones since we didn’t have any available cameras, so the quality of the
photos weren’t as good as what they could have been. After enhancing them in
Iphoto, however, we slightly improved the quality. Overall, this task was enjoyable
as we got a chance to work with both Iphoto and Imovie so we learnt how to use
two different programs at once. It also increased our photography skills as we
had to take a variety of photos before we could decide which
ones were the best to use for our essay.

Welcome to the Online Essay Blog for MAS110: Introduction to Digital Media Production students enrolled in Lab 5, Semester 2, 2012.

Student posts will examine a range of digital media productions, theories, themes, concepts and ideas within an academic context. Posts will refer to the MAS110 lecture series, class reader and make links with wider research in the field.

MAS110 is a first year subject for B. Arts (Media) students at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.